With A Slight Note of Imperfection
by Eiprej
Summary: "So. Whaddya up to?" Kyouko presses herself against Mami's arm, shoulder to shoulder with the girl, curious hazel eyes scouring the table. A fork hangs from her mouth. With a pencil poised over a bold, straight line, Mami responds. "Homework, Sakura-san." /MamiKyou/


**A/N: Last fanfic I did KyoSaya ( which a lot of people seemed to like, so thank you all! ) and I actually wanted to write some MamiKyou, too. I noticed I never really have written Mami before, or pre-break up Kyouko. So, uh, I kind of whipped this up. I hope I kind of got a lot of the little details right. ;v; Despite that, I hope it's enjoyable. MamiKyou is great and I wanted this to be great, too.**

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"So. Whaddya up to?" Kyouko presses herself against Mami's arm, shoulder to shoulder with the girl, curious hazel eyes scouring the table. A fork hangs from her mouth, void of the cake once on it, but not for long. Kyouko's not really one to waste time digging into food and this time isn't any different. The two of them are sitting on the floor cushions, Kyouko having scooted hers closer to the girl in question.

Mami hums very gently in response to the invasion of her personal space, otherwise not showing much distaste for the action. In front of her, there's a sheet of paper, printed words covering the whiteness. With a pencil poised over a bold, straight line, she responds. "Homework, Sakura-san."

Kyouko leans away from Mami, directing her attention to the cheesecake and eagerly jamming her fork into the treat. "It looks really boring, Mami-san." She complains for the golden-haired girl, before eating her cheesecake. "Do you really gotta do it?"

Mami glances Kyouko's way for a brief second, watching while the red-head chews down the enormous piece of cake. It seemed too big of a mouthful even for her, and now she actually looks like she's regretting the decision. Mami smiles gently, shaking her head and returning her attention to her homework. "Of course it is. After all, I can't afford to slack off, magical obligations and all."

There's a few moments of silence following the statement, only broken by Kyouko's chewing and the scratch of lead against paper. And then, finally, the younger manages to talk again. "Oh. Do ya' usually do good on stuff like that, Mami-san? I mean, we're always so busy."

"Mm. I do well, I believe. Don't take my word for it, though. I may be growing just a bit concieted." Mami offers Kyouko a little smile, Kyouko shifting and crossing her legs. She grins at Mami happily. "Yeah, well. I think you're perfect, so it's not like I'd blame ya'."

At the words, Mami pauses in mild shock at the blunt statement. A brief influx of happiness hits her, along with embarrassment at how high Kyouko has her placed in her mind. Her cheeks flush a very faint pink, and she laughs softly. "Oh no, no, Kyouko. Believe me, I'm not perfect."

Kyouko shrugs, puffing her cheeks out. "Well I think ya' are, and that's that." With that, the conversation fizzles out, Kyouko focusing on finishing the cake in front of them and Mami working heavily on her assignment. The blond can't help but steal a few glances at Kyouko, golden gaze shifting when she thinks the red-head's close to catching her.

It's an understatement to say that she's happy.

A little while later, Mami ends up staring down one of the problems on the page with as much reluctance as she can allow to seep through her expression. Her pride won't let her outwardly show how stumped she is by the question - unwilling to allow Kyouko to see her senpai falter - which causes her pencil to kind of tap against the page. It most certainly couldn't be helped, after Kyouko's insistence on how absolutely flawless she was. Mami's brows furrow momentarily, and she reads the question once more time. Twice. And then a third time, with no progress.

Honestly, she wanted to blame it on the increased training with her and Kyouko after the scheduled witch hunts. Could one really blame her? It was hard to keep up with _everything_ that went on, so it couldn't be too unusual to completely miss on one or two things. _'No, Mami, you will not blame this on magical girl duties. It's ultimately my job to keep up; I promised myself that, at least.'_ The self scold does nothing to help her out.

"... Mami-san?" Kyouko's call of her name brought Mami's attention to her partner, finally catching onto the sight of Kyouko curiously looking at her. She has one elbow on the table, head resting on her hand and legs crossed lazily. The plate is clear of cake, and - Mami's not surprised - the entire cake itself is gone too. It looks like Kyouko's been done for a while now.

"Yes?"

"You look a little confused. You good there?" Kyouko's very perceptive, and Mami inwardly praises that. However, she's still not keen on admitting the fact. After all, she does have an image to keep up. "No, it's fine. I'm simply looking over this question again."

"Alright, if you say so..."

A couple of more moments pass, with golden orbs blank on the paper and the answer sheet even blanker still. No neat, curvy lead scribbles for an answer. After a long moment, Kyouko clears her throat and invades Mami's personal space once more, scooting just close enough to press herself against Mami again, although this time she leans her head out to see the paper. "That's it?" She questions, poking at it with a finger.

Mami finally breaks a little, sighing softly, giving up. "Ah, um... yes." She sounds a little sheepish, and Kyouko looks at her briefly with a comforting grin.

"Alrighty, lemme give you a hand!" The red magi sounds awfully excited, reaching forward for the paper and sliding it closer to the edge of the table. Mami nearly protests when Kyouko shuffles closer to her, eventually relaxing when the red-head makes a few noises as she reads the sentence on the paper. The blond looks a little concerned. Kyouko was, what, one grade below her? Could she really understand the paper? "Are you sure about that, Sakura-san..?"

"Course I am! Let me help you out for once, okay?" Kyouko sounds so happy that Mami doesn't want to try shooting her down again, so she allows her to read her paper. Kyouko mumbles incoherently under her breath, and then she drops the paper back onto the table. Mami is about to tell her that it's fine, she can figure it out later, when Kyouko quickly covers her words with her own.

"_All the homemade cookies were eaten by my son._" She tells Mami, to which the girl blinks at her for a moment. Kyouko then picks herself up, looking a little embarrassed at the sudden ( and foreign ) words. "Wouldn't it be something like that? I mean, that's the only way..."

Mami pauses, looks between the question and Kyouko, and hesitantly picks up her pencil. Now that she's pointed it out, it seems fairly obvious. Slowly, Mami scribbles down the answer, still just a tad bit surprised. It wears off when she's done, and her pencil gently taps against the wood when she places it down. She focuses on Kyouko, who's looking particularly proud of herself.

Smiling, Mami talks. "I didn't know you sounded quite so fluent in english, Kyouko. Is this what you've been hiding from your senpai?" Her tone has a teasing edge to it, although it's obvious she's a little bit shocked.

Kyouko blushes lightly, laughing just a small bit. "Aha, it's not really a big deal..."

Mami puts her hand over Kyouko's momentarily, eyes gentle as she regards Kyouko. "No, I think it's wonderful. Thank you, Sakura-san." The younger holds her gaze for a while, breaking out into a bashful little smile, fang highlighting the action. "No problem."

Mami presses her lips to Kyouko's cheek, giggling when she stiffens up. Her fingers fall from Kyouko's hand, and she slowly wiggles away from the closeness, standing up and picking up the empty plates as she sets out to enter the kitchen, a pink-faced Kyouko staring after her.

"I think such a perfect partner deserves a prize."


End file.
